A GUITAR CHAT thread

[Steve Carlton]

Originally Posted by TimT

I mistakenly sold my Mesa Boogie Mk1 many years ago.. and its another unobtanium amp

My guitar tech's day job is working for Mesa Boogie, which I think is owned by Gibson. I asked if it was cool for him to buy a Gibson as an employee and sell it to me. It wasn't...

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by TimT

I just got on line for one of these.. should be here in two months..

Ceriatone OT Lunchbox




Apparently the closest to a Dumble I'll ever be able to swing...I mistakenly sold my Mesa Boogie Mk1 many years ago.. and its another unobtanium amp

Nice. I like their prices. I have stayed away from PCP construction just for ease of service but I got that fancy stuff and ready to move on and experience other things so I am about to pull the trigger on either a Friedman Little Sister, Boogie California Tweed or Boogie Fillmore 50 - combo. All PCP but don’t care anymore. These amps sound great and if they fail, I’ll deal with it

Report back when you get the amp

[Steve Carlton]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

Nice. I like their prices. I have stayed away from PCP construction just for ease of service but I got that fancy stuff and ready to move on and experience other things so I am about to pull the trigger on either a Friedman Little Sister, Boogie California Tweed or Boogie Fillmore 50 - combo. All PCP but don’t care anymore. These amps sound great and if they fail, I’ll deal with it

Report back when you get the amp

I asked my friend at MB about those amps and he asked how will you use the amp? Are you looking for overdrive, or do you want a a loud and clean pedal platform? His job is testing the amps.

[ramonesfreak]

I have my bases covered for all the above…as usual I’m just looking to play with more toys and last thing I need is another amp. I’ll probably go with the Friedman because the boogies are really redundant for me as I have a deluxe reverb, Vox ac15, 59 vibrolux, tweed deluxe, and magnatone varsity so…,

I do however have my eye on a Marshall 1974x and a Suhr Hombre….so many choices

My basic tone has always been a black face fender clean with ability to get OD that ranges from Tweed to Dumble OD special….my pedals get me there

I’m a junkie

[ramonesfreak]

[Steve Carlton]

Scratch nearly itched!

[Rick Lee]

I recently got a Friedman Runt 50 and a Suhr SL67. I love, love, love them both.

[TimT]

I was thinking of getting a Ceriatone "Son of Yeti" Plexi clone... it has a really unique control baked in... but opted for a Dumble clone

[Sigman]

Dang ramonesfreak, I don't know if I could make myself leave the house if I had all that candy. Awesome stuff man!

[ramonesfreak]

I work from. It’s where I take my coffee breaks. God help me if my basement ever floods…..main drain out has backed up 5 times and came within a foot of all of it. Eeek

[Rick Lee]

Mrs. Lee is about to leave the house, so I'm about to make some noise.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

I am about to pull the trigger on either a Friedman Little Sister

I know mine is a minority opinion in the cork sniffer, boutique amp crowd, but I found the Friedman Dirty Shirley (the Little Sister's one channel version) to be lacking. It sounds awesome in the Youtube demos and I guess ok for home practice if cranked up. But at band practice it was just too dark and did not cut. The guy I just traded my DS to for his Suhr SL67 sent me a photo of him playing my old DS with a treble boost pedal and swears that is the secret sauce to that amp. And I think the Little Sister will be a PCB and not hand wired. My DS was, but the old DS combo I had was hand wired. I haven't taken my Runt 50 to band practice yet, but it is way, way brighter than the other Friedmans I've had. I love it and I stole it for $1035 delivered.

[ramonesfreak]

The little sister is PCB. A very nice and simple PCB though…I generally stay away from any PCB but I don’t mind with Friedman. But, I never owned one and haven’t decided what I want next.

I am so tempted to get a boogie mark 5: 35. Again complicated PCB but I’ve wanted a mark series since I saw Santana playing the Mark 1 so long ago. I got the PRS in 1990 (still have) but never got the boogie. It’s so different than anything I have currently.

[ramonesfreak]

Btw, speaker choice is key. I think people find the creamback with Friedmans to be a bit dark and the redback better. The redback comes in the DS 1x12 cab and is usually the cab to get for the LS. The LS combo comes with the creamback…not sure why

[Rick Lee]

Isn't the Redback 100w? That sounds a bit overkill for a 40w amp. It would not get pushed. I have two 2x12s, one a Marshall JVM with a Celestion Heritage and V30 and the other an Avatar. But I forget which Celestions are in there. They're both good for up to 130w. But anytime I run a 100w Marshall head through either of them, I run it through a Hot Plate, which shaves some wattage.

[ramonesfreak]

Yup. high watt. people seem to prefer it for the DS and LS. LS is only 20 watts, not even 40.

I dont know details of DS but the LS is capable of some very nice sparkly fenderish cleans and has decent headroom and the high watt probably helps with that and then with high gain it holds up nice.

I have an old eminence red fang 65 watt i think might sound perfect in a LS. sorta like a celestion gold which is definitely a favorite of mine.

i have a dozen speakers sitting here from swapping out. ive started building extension cabs for my other combos but have been thinking of building some cabinets specifically for new amp heads as i have not had a head/cab since the early 90s.

my last head was an 80s fender twin reverb II - the Rivera designed amp. never should have sold that. but whoa that was heavy. I was 20 and could barely move it and carried it to so many parties in college...up and down those stairs, drunk, with a 4x12 cab on wheels....sold it in 98 and never bought another head and cab again. now, they are so compact and light if that is what you want.....nice for live back up because you can easily transport 2 of them. The friedmans are so small and compact,..and those Orange Tiny Terror series heads are killer, cheap and so light

if i am to be honest with myself i i have to accept i need to sell some stuff, stop looking and buying and just save the $$$ to buy the Two Rock that i really want and be done with it all instead of chasing and compromising

all i do is dream guitar stuff. very hard to get any work done

[Rick Lee]

I don't need any more gear at all. But I can't bring myself to part with anything I already have, and I have too much. I am still playing my GK 250ML I bought when I was 16. I'm 54. I bought another to have as a backup and I have the head version too, since Alex Lifeson used that amp for several Rush albums and we play some of those songs. But I don't need three versions of the same amp. Ditto for the 100w Plexis. One is enough. But then they do kind of sound different.

[ramonesfreak]

it very much helps stay focused with gear accumulation if you are in a band that plays specific covers like rush or VH

anyone i play with these days are mostly blues based or jammy psychedelic stuff, even reggae. all over the place. my personal life is no different. sometimes i want to play through a set up that gives me the perfect early 70s grateful dead sound. other times its swampy blues like junior kimbrough or maybe the stones. other times i feel like sounding like anything off kill em all. this means you end up with a warehouse full of gear. i never minded this accumulation but not any more. im 53 and well....its mostly downhill from here as they say :-) best to simplify and perfect what you have unless opening a public recording studio which aint happening

[IROC]

I have a crappy (OK, inexpensive is a better word) Fender acoustic guitar that I bought over 20 years ago. I find myself playing acoustic more often than electric these days and have been casually looking around for something better. Last weekend I went into guitar center and just played a bunch of different guitars. I didn't focus on brand, cost, anything - just what felt and sounded good to me.

I found out that I REALLY like the Taylor 414CE Studio. Anyone have any experience or opinions on those?

[Steve Carlton]

Nut width of 1 11/16th (slightly thinner neck) can seem narrow to some, fine to others. The "toasted top" (torrefied) is a big plus for this, making it sound like an older, more seasoned guitar. They did a nice job making it without a binding, and simple without inlays. I have the same size in a Taylor 724ce, and love it. Taylors are known for being well-made and easy to play. Lots and lots of choices out there, and you're prioritizing correctly. Hard to miss with this guitar, IMO. I watched videos with Cooper Greenberg (Alamo Music) and Quentin at Music Villa, but thought this was the best one. Joe Ravita at Empire Music's review seemed the best, although there's lots more. I've bought a couple of guitars from Joe and he's great to talk to on the phone. He's aggressive on pricing and there wasn't tax when shipped out of state.